Industrial plants that process volatile (explosive or flammable) chemicals such as gaseous hydrocarbons, often maintain the chemicals at a predetermined temperature by heating them with currents passing through a flat self-regulating heating cable. A pipe carries fluid at the same temperature as the chemicals being processed, to an explosion containment vessel that contains one or more switches that are closed and opened according to the temperature of fluid in the tube. This gives rise to the danger that when switches operate, they can create sparks that may ignite chemicals in the environment. Sometimes the containment vessel is opened for maintenance etc. and the volatile environment drifts into the explosion containment vessel, where it can ignite when the next spark is generated. The purpose of the containment vessel is to prevent the flame or explosion that occurs inside the vessel, from passing out of the vessel into the volatile environment.
One prior system for forming an explosion-proof seal around the flat cable that carries current between a switch(s) in the vessel and a heater outside the vessel, guided the flat cable through a bore in a body. After the cable was in place, the bore was filled by flowing a flowable inert potting compound such as epoxy into the bore and letting the potting compound set. It could take two days to seal the flat cable in place with such system, which can hold up other projects.
A system for providing a tight seal around a flat cable that extends through a body into an explosion proof vessel, which could be set up in a short period of time, would be of value.